My Grandmother Keller was a daughter of one of Lafayette's aides, Alexander Moore, and granddaughter of Alexander Spotswood, an early Colonial Governor of Virginia. She was also second cousin to Robert E. Lee.

My father, Arthur H. Keller, was a captain in the Confederate Army, and my mother, Kate Adams, was his second wife and many years younger. Her grandfather, Benjamin Adams, married Susanna E. Goodhue, and lived in Newbury, Massachusetts, for many years. Their son, Charles Adams, was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and moved to Helena, Arkansas. When the Civil War broke out, he fought on the side of the South and became a brigadier-general. He married Lucy Helen Everett, who belonged to the same family of Everetts as Edward Everett and Dr. Edward Everett Hale. After the war was over the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee.

I lived, up to the time of the illness that deprived me of my sight and hearing, in a tiny hous

Reader Reviews

I studied completely and came to know much she struggled.though she was a blind,dump.and by this deprivation she could also not speak clearly.but in fact she studied with normal guys.and learned much.and she could really describe nature.

The first section of the book is a autobiography written by Helen when she was still in college. It is extremely well-written with amazing visual and aural imagery for a woman who was deaf and blind. It was very touching when she described her discovery of language.

The second section of the book contains letters that Helen has written in her youth. These show her development as a writer. I found these somewhat boring after the first few.

I have not gotten to the last section yet, where Annie Sullivan writes. However, the first section is definitely a worthwhile read!